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BMA launches legal action over blurring of lines between doctors and physician associates
Dr Robert Laurenson (right), co-chair of the British Medical Association (BMA) junior doctors committee, joins junior doctors on the picket line outside St Thomas' Hospital, central London, February 26, 2024

THE BMA announced today that it is taking legal action against the General Medical Council over the way in which it plans to regulate physician associates.

The union is challenging the body’s “unsafe use” of the term “medical professionals” to describe PAs, which it says should only ever be used to refer to qualified doctors.

The legal action was announced by BMA council chairman Professor Philip Banfield at the union’s annual representative meeting in Belfast.

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